Recently a corporate client from Canada hired us for legal advice in its attempt to transfer a piece of residential property owned by its China subsidiary entity to one of its employee under an incentive plan that has been executed some 15 years ago.

The China subsidiary bought the properties 15 years ago in Beijing and at the same time, entered into a gift contract…

This "houses are for living in, not for speculating on" has been out there since last December when China top leaders met up for an economic meeting. It has become a very popular slogan among either local governments and the media.

Since then, we have seen a steady increase of property curbing measures that are put in place by Chinese local governments citing the…

China's economy is having a rough ride at the moment and it's only get to get worse.

China's economy grew at its slowest rate in 24 years in 2014, just 7.4%. Its stock market has fallen around 40% since hitting multi-year highs in mid-June. And the government is burning through cash reserves to prop it up. China's debt is also twice the size of its GDP.

Apparently this is an effort to bail out or keep afloat the ailing Chinese property market on a national scale. Unfortunately, hot markets in the first-tiered cities are still closed to foreign buyers like Shanghai. However, it is very likely that local governments in Shanghai may loosen the regulation to have more foreign buyers.

You may say it is crazy to buy Chinese properties esp those first-tiered cities like Shanghai, Beijing, where the expectation of price drop just seems to take hold. Probably people should wait for some time before the market gets clear where it will be going.

Though you may think otherwise of Shanghai property market, many people are starting losing confidence and thus selling their properties in China. The biggest sale is made by Asia No. 1 tycoon from Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing. He has sold several properties in Shanghai, indicating that he sensed a turning point to be coming soon.